Here’s How You Might Be Wasting Time on Social Media
Is your social media marketing management still on track? Maximise the medium’s potential by steering clear of these time-wasting practices.
Is your social media marketing management still on track? Make sure by steering clear of these time-wasting practices.
Social media management, in many ways, is similar to tending to a farm. Much like maintaining a strong presence on social media, growing produce for distribution and consumption requires careful planning and consistent action.
You don’t just scatter fruit or vegetable seeds all over your land, disappear and wait for them to grow on their own, and only return during harvest time; you prepare the soil, water the crops, take the necessary measures to protect your crops from invasive elements, and so on. Let yourself get distracted – or neglect to take any of these steps – and your farming journey will be over before it even begins.
While social media has proven to be an indispensable part of any modern business’s strategy, it’s simply not enough to be there. In fact, not taking action and taking the wrong kind of action are equally detrimental to your overall strategy. It’s time for you to reassess your social media management strategy if you are wasting your time by…
To use #SocialMedia effectively, focus and steer clear of these time-wasters.
Trying to be on all social media platforms, all the time.
While it’s generally a good business strategy to have all of your bases covered, that’s not necessarily the case when it comes to social media for business. Here’s the thing:
Not every social media platform is well-suited for your business. Exerting effort towards capturing every single audience segment on social media – even the ones that aren’t likely to generate leads or conversions for your business – is ultimately a waste of resources, and will only cause you to spread yourself too thinly.
Not only will you be monitoring and attempting to bond with users on more social media platforms than you need to, but you’ll also make the process of establishing your brand identity even more complicated than it has to be. You’ll have to come up with more content, publish more updates, tweak your messaging for every platform, and so on. And if you’re doing that for an audience that isn’t likely to reciprocate…
A more effective way of going about this is to take the time to learn more about each social media platform, after which you can carefully select where to put the majority of your time, effort, and money into.
Warning: You may be spending your time on #SocialMedia unproductively.
Producing content that is too long and unfocussed.
Sometimes, in an effort to add as much value to our messaging as possible, you may end up cramming your content – your blogs, your infographics, and so on – with practically everything but the kitchen sink.
Overly long content can lead you towards confusing and even losing your audience. Remember that in this age, the average attention span of a human is said to have become even shorter than that of a goldfish’s. Do you think your potential customer would spend more than twelve seconds reading through content, just to figure out if it’s useful to them or not?
Another way of overloading your content strategy is posting and sharing as much content as you can – even the kinds that are just tangentially related to your industry – without first considering whether all that information is interesting and relevant to your customers.
With either style of content generation, you’ll burn yourself out without having much to show for your efforts in the end.
Here’s a tip: Master the art of content creation, and learn how to repurpose and select just the right amount and quality of content for your audience.
Additionally, plan your content well with an editorial calendar that maps out your social media updates for a specific period of time.
Are you tanking your #SocialMedia with these time-wasting activities?
Unaware of your chosen social media platform’s most useful features.
There’s a good chance that you’re not maximising the power of your chosen social media platforms. For example, did you know that, aside from the typical liking, sharing, and community-building features of Facebook, you could actually transfer files through Messenger, or filter your News Feed? Or that you can choose to send your Promoted Tweet to just your target audience, and avoid spamming all of your Twitter followers? Learn the best practices in using the most popular social media platforms and take your online presence to new heights.
The key to #SocialMedia success? Using your time wisely.
Not taking advantage of social media management tools (or depending on way too many of them)
Aside from the typical social media management tools that we’re all familiar with, you can also add some special apps to your arsenal to make the job much easier. With the right tools, you can pretty much glide smoothly through the whole process of maintaining your social media accounts.
The other side of the coin, however, is if you depend on way too many social media tools. This can severely hamper your productivity and give you lackluster results. My advice? Choose your preferred social media tools carefully. Read up on what each social media tool can do, and choose the ones that best suit your needs.
Letting yourself be distracted by every single activity on your social media accounts (and trying to answer each and every inquiry yourself).
Social media lets you connect with your consumers on a more personal, intimate level. Through direct engagement with your audience, you allow them to see the human side of your brand, making it easier for them to relate to you and build a two-way relationship built upon mutual need and trust.
Unfortunately, this also means that you’ll get the urge to check your account every now and then, for all the notifications you receive. If you’re not selective about which posts or updates you respond to, you’ll end up trying – and failing – to participate in every single thread or conversation, thereby using up your time instead of accomplishing something more productive and critical to your business.
Each of your responses to a tweet, tag, comment, or any other kind of interaction represents time that you could have spent doing something else. That’s why I suggest getting a virtual assistant to handle the day-to-day tasks that come with maintaining your social media accounts. Trust me, it’s a worthwhile investment.
At this point, after reading the points I mentioned, could you really say that you’re maximising your social media presence? Or are you guilty of participating in any of the activities (or exhibiting any of the behaviors) listed above? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Use #SocialMedia effectively by avoiding these time-wasting practices.
Liz Azyan is interested in the ways new kinds of social data and technology introduce challenges and opportunities to society. Get involved with Liz’s latest project here.
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